Wednesday, July 22, 2015

WEDNESDAY
Wednesday night has the season premiere of Last Comic Standing on NBC following the first live Wednesday episode of America's Got Talent. FOX has the series premiere of reality competition Home Free, but I don't think it'll get much traction. ABC has a marathon of Black-ish, which just scored a surprising but deserved Emmy nomination for star Anthony Anderson. And CBS has flipped timeslots for Extant and repeats of Criminal Minds.ABC8:00 Black-ish (REPEAT)8:30 Black-ish (REPEAT)9:00 Black-ish (REPEAT)9:30 Black-ish (REPEAT)10:00 Modern Family (REPEAT)10:30 Modern Family (REPEAT)CBS8:00 Big Brother9:00 Extant #17 "Cracking the Code"10:00 Criminal Minds (REPEAT)

Friday, July 3, 2015

Based on the Book by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
Developed by Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, and Scott Rosenberg
Teleplay by Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, & Scott Rosenberg, Directed by Brad Anderson

Zoo is a new thriller drama based on the James Patterson/Michael Ledwidge novel of the same name. The show centers on twin attacks from lions who are beginning to coordinate together. The first is in Africa where zoologist Jackson Oz (James Wolk) gets a front row seat of lion attacks alongside his partner, Abraham Kenyatta (Nonso Anozie) and a woman he meets during the attack, Chloe Tousignant (Nora Arnzeder). Meanwhile in Los Angeles, two lions escape from the zoo, killing their zookeeper and two men in the city. A journalist, Jamie Campbell (Kristen Connolly) is suspicious of the new food the lions have been fed and is consulting with an animal pathologist, Mitch Morgan (Billy Burke).

This show started a little silly but had me intrigued by the end. I've never read the book so I don't really know where it was going but the initial narration along the lines of "what if animals ruled the world" made me laugh. But then the story got going and I was interested in both the African storyline and the Los Angeles storyline, which I'm sure will intersect sooner rather than later. I thought the performances ranged from serviceable to good. I've enjoyed James Wolk in everything he's been in including the failed Lone Star and The Crazy Ones. He seems destined for a hit show at some point though I'm not sure this is it. Kristen Connolly was good too and I was actually a bit more intrigued by the Los Angeles story than the African one.

In the summer of Jurassic World, this was another entry in the "terrifying animals taking over" category but it does it fairly well by TV show standards. Something about zoo attacks seems almost scarier to me than something more unrealistic like Jurassic. There have been several summer shows this year that have interested me enough during the pilot but I haven't been able to stick with (Wayward Pines, The Whispers, Aquarius). I feel the same about this one so episode two will go a long way to determine if I stick around to see what happens.

It's been a rough summer for new shows but NBC renewed its new unscripted show I Can Do That. Airing after America's Got Talent, I Can Do That started off with a strong 1.8 demo and has settled in the 1.5 range but a lot of that seems to be due to airing after the top show in summer. It'll be back for a presumed summer 2016 run.

On Wednesday night, CBS started out with Big Brother down a million viewers and two tenths in the demo from last week's season premiere. At 10pm was the season premiere of Halle Berry's Extant. After declining ratings in season one but a surprising renewal, the show was completely ignored for its revamped new season. It was at a series low with a horrible 0.7 demo. On FOX, Masterchef was down three tenths in viewers and a tenth in the demo while Bullseye was up a tenth in viewers and the demo. Finally on ABC, Celebrity Wife Swap was down three tenths in viewers and a tenth in the demo.

Tuesday night had the series premiere of the new CBS drama Zoo. It did alright in total viewers but skewed very old. This has been a summer of scripted shows premiering OK but then dropping badly (except for Wayward Pines) and I could see Zoo following that trend. FOX was on top with the strong showing (and young skewing) FIFA Women's World Cup. It didn't help the series premiere of Beat the Champions that followed though as that premiered with an extremely weak 0.9 demo. Something tells me the Women's World Cup viewers aren't the type to just tune into a regular show that follows. NBC had America's Got Talent, which was down four tenths in viewers and a tenth in the demo. The just-renewed I Can Do That was up two tenths in viewers and a tenth in the demo. Finally on ABC, Extreme Weight Loss was up a tenth in viewers and even in the demo.